VA-ALERT: Lobby Day 2013 wrap up

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VA-ALERT: Lobby Day 2013 wrap up

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We had around 750 gun owners proudly wearing their Guns Save Lives stickers at the General Assembly!

We FLOODED all of the floors. Legislators and legislative aides could not and did not miss our message and our numbers.

Teams were formed outside, each headed by a Team Leader. The teams then entered the General Assembly Building. Each team went to the offices of their preassigned legislators. The teams delivered the VCDL Gun Bill Analysis document and talked to the legislators and/or their legislative aides, lobbying for VCDL's agenda.

Fun was had by all and the teams did a fantastic job representing gun owners!

Our message blared like a loud Klaxon, while the antis made more of a peeping sound.

EM Bob Sadtler deserves special recognition for the hard work and long hours he put in coordinating the Team Leaders for Lobby Day.

EM Chip Marce, one of our Team Leaders wanted me to share this. His pride in his team is quite palpable and is shared by the other team leaders I have heard from:

"I wanted to let you know that from my perspective as a team leader,
Lobby Day was a great success. If you have the opportunity, I would
appreciate it if you could convey a huge THANK YOU!! to those who
attended.

I'm completely biased of course, but my team was simply 'The Best!' I
couldn't have hoped for better folks to go with today. My team shored
me up as I stumbled, made great points to our representatives that
hadn't even occurred to me, and were just great advocates for our
Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

I was sitting in some delegates office earlier today, I can't remember
which, and it struck me that I would take ANY ONE of my team including
( make that especially!! ) the teenagers over the bulk of the
delegates and senators we have. Their stories and backgrounds were
spot on, and they showed a passion for liberty that is too rare to see
in these cynical times. I also found it fascinating to see the level
of deference and respect we received, even when dealing with folks who
we know to be our opponents. I think that politicians instinctively
know who the lead dogs are, and I knew who the real leaders were at
the GA today.

(Oh. Did I mention that I had a great team?)

To my team and everyone who showed for Lobby Day, thanks for making my
job as a Team Leader a real joy."

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A special thanks to all those who worked very hard to make Lobby Day a success this year:

EM Robert Sadtler
Board member Dennis O'Connor
Board member Bruce Jackson
Board member John Fenter
VCDL VP, Jim Snyder
Team Leaders: Lee Affholter, Doug Peterson, Jan Walter, Chuck Nesby, Chip Marce, Jeff Hamlin, Joe Ligon, Malcolm Blundell, John Wilburn, Greg Trojan, Christopher Karanski, George Overstreet, Alan Fisher, and Dave Hicks.

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MEDIA COVERAGE

WRVA, Richmond's premier AM radio station, had VCDL Lobby Day as the lead on the news every half hour on Monday morning.

A photo of some of the crowd awaiting to be assigned to teams:

From facebook.com: http://tinyurl.com/bggpvhn

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Here is some more coverage:

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/01/state-s ... s-continue

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http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/319313

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From times dispatch.com: http://tinyurl.com/bxdrf9x

Advocates in gun debate converge on Capitol Square
BY MARKUS SCHMIDT Richmond Times-Dispatch

Less than six week after the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that left 20 children and six adults dead, advocates on both sides of the gun debate are on Capitol Square on Lobby Day to make their case to lawmakers.

This afternoon, groups seeking further restrictions will lobby at the Bell Tower in Capitol Square to remember victims of gun violence.

This morning, gun-rights advocates gathered around the Capitol and the General Assembly Building to protest recent legislative efforts to impose further regulations on gun owners.

“Some folks want to talk about more gun control using tragedies like the Sandy Hook shooting, but that’s missing the issue,” said Russell Fisher, a Vietnam veteran and retired law enforcement officer from Dumfries in Prince William County.

“Legislating inanimate objects doesn’t make much sense. We need to legislate criminal behavior,” he said.

Matthew Maddelena of Woodbridge said that banning assault rifles would be the wrong approach, because “these weapons are not involved in a lot of crimes.”

Maddelena said that such legislation would only punish responsible licensed gun owners like himself. “I’ve had guns in my house since I was a child and nobody was ever shot,” he said.

Supporters of more gun regulation were not yet visible around the Capitol this morning. They may have already lost their battle last week when Senate and House panels scrapped a number of bills that would have banned sales of assault-style weapons and large magazines and would have required background checks on all sales.

A proposal that would compel private sellers at gun shows to use licensed dealers to sell their firearms is pending, but chances for such legislation to pass remain slim.

Bob Sadtler of Richmond, gun show coordinator with the Virginia Citizens Defense League, said that legislation aimed at closing this so called “gun show loophole” would have the opposite effect.

“Gun shows are not attractive to criminals because they don’t do business in front of cops and witnesses,” he said. “If this law passes, private sellers will take their business outside into the parking lot. For a criminal, this will turn a gun show sale from a risk into an opportunity,” Sadtler said.

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VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.

VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]